Khalíl ibn Ahmad Al Farāhídi was a writer and philologist from southern Arabia (modern day Oman) who compiled the first dictionary of the Arabic language, the "Kitab al-Ayn". He was born in Oman and moved to Basra, Iraq where he converted from the Ibadi sect of Islam to become a Sunni. "Kitab al-Ayn" ("The source book"), while started by Khalil ibn Ahmad it was probably completed by one of his students, Al-Layth ibn Al-Muzaffar. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Khalil Ibn Ahmad. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalil_ibn_Ahmad
